DeKALB — Southern Poverty Law Center-classified hate group Identity Evropa has papered the NIU campus with flyers advertising white nationalism for the second time in several months.

Flyers were found at Barsema Hall and around MLK Commons with posters reading “action, identity, leadership” in October.

“I’m incredibly proud of leading a university that is diverse in all aspects and that strives to provide a welcoming community to all students, faculty and staff,” said acting President Lisa Freeman. “In times like now, I encourage us all to consider our student’s Northern Pact and how we can meaningfully live it each day so that messages rooted in inclusivity and positivity are raised higher than those intended to divide us.”

NIU officials removed the posters, stickers and flyers because they violated the campus posting policies, which limit posting to Student-Assocation-recognized student organizations and require posters to be approved by Student Involvement and Leadership Development officials.

The Student Involvement and Leadership Development director has the authority to withhold approval of a posting if it is deemed “obscene, offensive or discriminatory to a portion of the university community, or which advertises an event which is illegal or unlawful,” according to the policy.

Lecia Brooks, outreach director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, said Identity Evropa began in 2016, and was one of the groups behind the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, VA, where counter-protester Heather Heyer was run over by a vehicle driven by a white nationalist. The chant “you will not replace us” is one of their staples.

“The Southern Poverty Law Center defines a hate group as an organization that – based on its official statements or principles, the statements of its leaders, or its activities – has beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics,” according to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s webpage.

When students returned from spring break, fliers advertising the hate-group were found around campus; near the Founders Memorial Library, the Holmes Student Center and Altgeld Hall.

“A lot of these groups tend to exist in the shadows,” said Elijah Bebora, junior political science major. “Now we have this white ethno-nationalist climate that has emboldened these groups to come out in the public spaces. What we’re seeing is kind of a direct correlation to what we’ve been seeing nationally.”

Brooks said Identity Evropa’s hides their views by claiming they are promoting Western civilizations and focusing on classical artwork and marvels, but the group is mostly pointed toward white nationalism.

“These are not publicity stunts,” Brooks said. “These are recruiting tactics.”

Identity Evropa has fliered 241 different college campuses as apart of the tactic they call Project Seige, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, The Southern Poverty Law Center also said their founder, former marine Nathan Domingo, has close ties to white nationalist Richard Spencer.

“The group aims to hide its white supremacist ideologies behind a pseudo-intellectualized facade,” according to an Oct. 17 Southern Poverty Law Center press release.

An Identity Evropa event in Nashville, Tennessee featured speakers from the Ku Klux Klan and the Council of Conservative Citizens, the white nationalist group that inspired murderer Dylann Roof, according to a March 15 Southern Poverty Law Center press release.

Bebora said he thinks the administration’s response to the postings were slow. “I think their lack of aggression toward this issue speaks volumes,” Bebora said. “All they have really done is rip down posters, but they haven’t been aggressive in trying to find out who the perpetrators are, and to me as a minority, that’s very disappointing.”